So What’re You Saying Ozzie?
I don’t think that I needed Ozzie to tell me that he’s not a Cubs fan. I had safely, assumed that he wasn’t, but it was nice of him to make it really, really clear.
Archive for the ‘Coaches’
We Have a Sweet Lou Sighting!
Okay, now baseball season has officially begun.
We’ve had the first Lou Piniella meltdown of the season. After a Kerry Wood meltdown in the ninth, a Brewer save by the usually hopeless Eric Gagne, and a 4-3 loss to the Brewers, Sweet Lou decided to give a very abbreviated press conference. According to the Chicago Sun-Times:
A question focusing on whether Piniella thought about shifting slick-fielding center fielder Reed Johnson to left — in place of fresh-off-the-disabled-list Alfonso Soriano — when he inserted defensive sub Felix Pie in center during the eighth inning lit Piniella’s short fuse.
”You’re damn right I thought about it,” Piniella said, his voice rising. ”You think I’m stupid or something? God … darn it. Thought. All right. Thanks.”
End of news conference.
As Piniella stormed away, the profanities he contained while in front of the cameras came spilling out.
Who had the over/under on game 28 for the Lou meltdown? Not me, I had him melting down in game 11. But I do get bonus points for guessing that Kerry Wood would be the cause (hey that’s funny wood/would, eh…moving on) of Lou’s first coronary of the season. Long summer to be had in Cubbieland, if Lou’s going to meltdown while the team is in second place; but at least it’ll be entertaining.
Larry Bowa Is a Little Upset-And Fuel Is a Little Expensive
Only two days into the season and already we’ve had a coaching meltdown. If anyone is surprised that it’s Larry Bowa, they must have had Lou Pinella in the office pool. Bowa managed to get tossed for standing in the wrong place. That takes talent. When warned that he needed to stand inside the third base coaches’ box, Bowa ignored the umpire until he was tossed from the Dodgers-Giants game. Then he went nuts:
But it was nowhere near as good as this Bowa rant from several moons ago, when Bowa was a much younger man, and apparently, a much more limited one vocabulary-wise (warning NSFW due to Clerks-style language:
Pat Riley Says The Hell With This Season
At least that’s the impression that I get.
And this article on Fox seems to back up my opinion. You see, Riley is already beginning to scout college players, so that he can make a draft decision with what will be a very high draft pick for the Heat. Since, you know, they’re terrible and all. It wouldn’t be that big a deal that he’s scouting, what is a big deal is that he’s probably going to miss games on account of his scouting:
There seems to be a strong chance, however, that Riley will not coach the Heat when they face the New York Knicks on Wednesday and the Orlando Magic on Friday, because several conference tournaments will be going on in earnest during that time.
And:
Riley revealed plans last week to miss some games to scout players who may be entering this year’s NBA draft, an unusual move but one that the team obviously feels is important in its rebuilding plan.
I bet some of the player’s wish that they could take the rest of the season of to do other thing’s. Like heal. D-Wade’s been playing hurt almost all season, but other than mailing in the All-Star Game Skills Competition, he’s played hard all season. It’s not like the Heat have to worry about a winning streak affecting their draft status. They could start winning now and win throughout and they’d still be 17 games under 500.
I know it may be best for the team in the long run for Riley to take this time to play GM, but you can’t help but think that they players would rather worry about this season and trying to win a few games. But then again, why start now?
Coach Kevin O’Neil Is a Man Of Passion
After the USC/Arizona basketball game, an over-zealous Wildcats fan mistook a USC player for a trash can and tossed his water bottle at him. This prompted Arizona coach Kevin O’Neil to grab the house mic, apologize to USC, and then to chastise the fan and crowd.
O’Neil, who will never be confused for someone with a pulse, was probably in part responsible for the occurrence. After all, he aired this little video in an attempt to get the Arizona fans fired up:
Good God, after that much intensity, they’re luck the guy didn’t throw a javelin. Come on coach! You’ve gotta show a little restraint. How much fun would it be to play for a coach like O’Neil? What fire. What passion. This guy’s a regular barrel full of prostitutes.
